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The ability to stay informed about current events, local happenings, and emergencies in real time is more important now than at any time in history.

A public information scanner or police scanner is a great tool for staying informed of the latest happenings in your local area. You won’t have to rely on a dedicated infrastructure, as you do with cellular phones, to tune into events as they unfold in real time. Scanners are available in portable, mobile, and base station configurations to suit any need.

Scanners have the ability to monitor a variety of radio frequencies. A scanner effectively listens for active radio traffic and locks into a frequency when it is in use. Of course scanners are available in multiple configurations particularly analog or digital.

Which scanner should I buy? This is a question we receive quite often at Bearcatscanner.com. The answer is - it depends. What type of system is in use in the area you’ll be running a scanner? Is it digital or analog? Is a trunking system utilized? Are the frequencies that are interesting being encrypted?

The majority of public service agencies have migrated to digital radio systems for improved performance. Many agencies have adopted trunking systems to share “bandwidth” across systems. Some municipalities have rolled out encryption in an effort to protect radio traffic from unauthorized listening. If an agencies system is encrypted you’ll most likely be unable to monitor their transmissions. Again researching the systems in use in your region, prior to purchasing a scanner will save on frustration and avoid missing out the important activities and news you wanted to listen to.

One way to answer the above questions is to access a national database of scanner frequencies. These are available online from websites such as the FCC’s Database or RadioReference.com. These databases will list frequencies in use in the city/county selected. This can be a tremendous resource for details about radio systems available in your area.

Uniden’s Bearcat scanners are easy to setup right out of the box and you’ll be able to start listening to a variety of radio traffic within a few short minutes. Often this is accomplished just by powering on the scanner and selecting the auto scan/program function. In order to gain the full benefits of all the features of your particular scanner you’ll want to be sure follow the detailed instructions from the user’s manual that comes with every Bearcat scanner.

Be sure to add your comments if you’ve found a particularly effective way to use your scanner. Our communities of Bearcat Scanner enthusiasts are always eager to help each other and exchange useful information.